In America, Gen Z rediscovers the 'great beauty' of physical media

In recent years we have observed Gen Z as the most technological generation ever: digital natives, grown up among streaming platforms, algorithms and immediate access to any content. I allow myself a provocation: what if the real innovation, today, was to rediscover the value of disconnection and the enjoyment of an emotion originating from a physical medium, without expiry date, capable of preserving and handing down stories and memories over time?

A certainly provocative question, but not out of time, considering that - news of these weeks - in the US many young people are approaching the physical audiovisual medium (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K) with interest. According to a recent analysis by the Digital Entertainment Group, in fact, a growing part of Gen Z has started to show signs of dissatisfaction with the need to manage a 'portfolio' of streaming subscriptions, all different from each other, where it happens to be impossible to find the film one wants to watch at a specific time. In this sense, the idea of unlimited access increasingly clashes with a fragmented and temporally circumscribed content reality.

Here, then, the physical medium re-enters the field in a renewed guise, in step with the technological times, but with an opportunity as simple as it is powerful: the freedom to choose and to own. Film is culture, it is sharing, it is historical memory: it must be readily available and, above all, it must always be possible to choose it, because each viewing is different from the previous one.

This dimension I like to call the 'luxury of disconnection': taking the time to choose your favourite film, building a personal collection that tells of tastes, passions and memories.

A rediscovery that not only has an emotional character, but also meets the technological needs of home viewing, which streaming is often unable to satisfy due to connections that are not always stable. The new generation physical medium, on the other hand, is now very high-performance in terms of both sound and vision. And, for those who really love cinema, this is not a detail.